Trend reports can often seem a world away from the everyday
realities of your business. But when a trend passes from fad to
major consumer movement, you don't want to be out of the loop.
So when we researched this year's hot trends, we hunted for
those that can affect your business now. No waiting to see if the
early adopters get bored. No guessing whether you'll alienate
current customers with a weird fad. These are the things your
customers will want tomorrow, whether they know it today or
not.

Authenticity

Who wants to serve Velveeta to guests when you can offer
handcrafted cheese made from local, organic dairy milk? Why wear
clothes from the mall when you can purchase the handiwork of a
local designer-U.S.-made and sweatshop-free? Buying products with
an aura of authenticity allows people to take control of their
purchases so they truly know what they're getting. They can be
unique and shop at businesses they feel akin to politically,
ethically and aesthetically.

How can a company tout its authenticity? You can make like Apple
Computer, Levi Strauss & Co. and Mercedes-Benz and use real
customers in your ads. Brag about your use of local ingredients and
materials, traditional and artisanal methods, or environmentally
and socially responsible practices. If you do it right, your
customers will then preen to friends about how authentic they are
for patronizing your authentic business.

Age 35

How can you reach a 19-year-old undergrad, a 31-year-old on the
career path, and a 47-year-old who's raising a toddler-with
just one message? Market to all of them as if they're 35. From
using Botox to erase any physical signs of aging to shopping at the
same stores as their kids to postponing their retirements, boomers
refuse to grow older. If you targeted them at their true ages,
they'd balk.

So with the more mature seeking a return to their youthful
selves, and young people looking to the future, age 35 has become a
golden median, as a recent Los Angeles Times article
explored. Target this age group, and you may end up hooking more
customers than you ever anticipated.

Multitasking and Memory Loss

In our jam-packed society, it seems the only thing there's a
lack of is time. Whether this overextension of our lives is
self-inflicted is an argument for another article, but multitasking
seems here to stay. People are watching TV while surfing the net,
driving while chatting on their cells, and checking their e-mail on
PDAs during meetings. TV series are having shorter seasons, and
popular magazines like Maxim and Star pack plenty of
blurbs, lists and photos for quick digestion.

But as a result of our inability to focus on anything for longer
than a millisecond, our memories may be shorting out. Studies show
that what's often assumed to be age-related memory loss may
actually be due to multitasking, depression and stress.

While an obvious opportunity for aging boomers and rampant
multitaskers will be memory aids (both pharmaceutical and herbal),
courses and guides, we wouldn't be surprised if consulting
firms dealing with the negative effects of multitasking skyrocket
in the near future.

Obesity

The widening of Americans isn't news anymore, but this is an
incredibly vast market still worthy of entrepreneurial exploration.
Health care, food service, apparel manufacturing and retailing,
medical device manufacturing and retailing-all these industries are
touched by what many consider a national health crisis.

There seem to be two sides to this trend: Helping people lose
weight and helping heavier people live more comfortably. For the
former, fast-food chains are lightening their menus, while more and
more school districts are removing junk food from campuses and
replacing it with healthier options. Health club membership rose by
8.5 percent between 2002 and 2003, according to market research
firm American Sports Data Inc. and the International Health,
Racquet & Sportsclub Association. And Medicare recently began
covering gastric bypass surgery.

On the flip side, more than 60 percent of women and teens wear
plus-size clothing, and the kids plus-size apparel market is
growing. A burgeoning industry is the manufacture and sale of
larger everyday products-fanny packs, airline seat belt extenders,
bath towels, tape measures, socks, desk chairs, even caskets-for
obese customers. William J. Fabrey and Nancy Summer of Amplestuff in
Bearsville, New York, have been catering to this market since 1988;
while Tim Barry, owner of Scale-IT.com in Vancouver, Washington, has created a
booming business selling higher-capacity scales. Products like
these are the very definition of a niche, and with that kind of
focus, new players will find there's still room in this market
for growth.

Snobs, Life Caching & Uniqueness

The Third Place

While it's a no-brainer that teens ditch their parents as
often as possible, many young adults are also in the same boat.
With 56 percent of men and 43 percent of women aged 18 to 24 still
living at home, according to the 2000 Census, an escape from the
house is more a necessity than a luxury. Businesses that position
themselves as what Starbucks' Howard Schultz calls "third
places" (home and work are the first two places) may become
popular destinations.

Starbucks and Barnes & Noble have built their businesses
around providing customers a comfortable environment to wile away
the hours. Wi-Fi has been a huge advantage in drawing in students,
businesspeople and home-office dwellers; and smart businesses like
Panera Bread tout this by including it in their location search on
their websites (as does Starbucks) and by offering information in
their stores.

Other big businesses are trying to get in on this act, too.
McDonald's is building a flagship restaurant in Chicago, slated
to open in 2005, that will feature wireless access and will
encourage customers to hang around in a relaxed atmosphere.
Coca-Cola is targeting teens with its new Red Lounges-mall-based
stores designed to let teens learn about new music, games and
movies . . . while they drink lots of Coke.

It's no longer wise to get people in and out of your
business as quickly as possible. Give them a reason to stay, and
you'll also give them a reason to come back.

Snobization

Middle-class Americans are turning into a bunch of snobs.
Premium jeans labels like Diesel and Miss Sixty are showing up on
small-town derriÃ¨res. Day spas, once considered a luxury, are
popping up all over the place. And don't get us started again
about food connoisseurs.

Starbucks is often cited as the originator of what Reinier
Evers, founder of trend agency Trendwatching.com, calls "snobmoddities":
everyday items that have been turned into chic, luxury must-haves.
These items aren't always expensive. Instead, says Evers,
they're small indulgences. "[These purchases] are only
mind-blowing compared to some of the prices we're still used to
from back in the day."

"We live in a consumption society and a meritocracy,"
says Evers. "Thus our identity is shaped by the things we
consume. So the more luxury items we can purchase and show the rest
of the world, the higher we rank in society."

The $400 billion luxury market is expected to grow 15 percent
per year, according to strategy and management consulting firm The
Boston Consulting Group, until it hits $1 trillion in 2010. Figure
out how you can repurpose your products and services in a luxurious
yet mostly affordable fashion, and you could be the next to cash in
on this skyrocketing market.

Uniqueness

Being unique is a tough gig these days. Mass production, large
chains and the quest for convenience often dictate uniformity. But
even though it takes a little more work, consumers are shopping
niche stores, looking for customizable options, and wearing their
interests and beliefs on their sleeves. No one industry explores
this consumer quirk more than T-shirt designers. While major chains
are still selling pseudo-vintage tees, people looking to
"outcool" their friends are hunting for truly unique
items: overtly political tees; designs from favorite bloggers from
CafePress.com; remixed designer tees that are ripped up, laced up
and bejeweled; religious designs, especially Judaica; and truly
vintage wear from eBay. While apparel sales fell 5.1 percent last
year, according to market research firm The NPD Group, T-shirt
sales rose 2.2 percent, making up $17 billion in a $166 billion
market.

Consumers desiring uniqueness are closely related to those
seeking accessible luxury and authenticity in their wares. Part of
the fun of ordering an expensive bottle of vinegar from a regional
producer is knowing you'll wow your friends at your next dinner
party. It's the cachet of being an early adopter, combined with
the need to never be wearing the same outfit as someone else at a
party. In a world of big-box retailers, it's up to the
entrepreneur to fill this need.

Life Caching

Today's boomers and seniors cherish the grainy super-8
films, fading Polaroids and locked diaries of their childhoods. But
future generations will instead hoard memory cards full of blog
entries, digital photos and the first websites they ever built. As
we learn to click to save every moment of our lives, data will
become the stuff that memories are made of. "Life caching will
become a given," says Reinier Evers, whose company coined the
term. "Consumers will come to expect [that] they can relive
every experience they've ever had and have instant access to
any life collection they've ever built."

Memory making has been big business for a while. Scrapbooking
has been one of the hottest trends in recent years-the $2.5 billion
industry doubled since 2001, according to the Hobby Industry
Association, and is still growing. But businesses that can provide
creative solutions to both physical and digital life caching are
the ones that stand to gain from this trend. One million Memory
Maker Photo Bracelets (a bracelet that wearers can insert several
photos into) were sold in six months. MyPublisher.com allows users
to create coffee-table books from their digital photos. Nokia's
Lifeblog service lets users download and arrange their
cell-phone-created content-messages, photos, videos, notes and
audio clips.

"Entrepreneurs can offer this space [for life caching],
taking on the gatekeeper role," explains Evers. "On a
grander scale, start thinking about how you can provide consumers
with the means to capture everything. This includes entrepreneurs
who already offer 'experiences.' What are you doing to help
[customers] capture and store these experiences?"